Natural Bond
Natural Bond is the real matrimonial bond of a valid marriage that is not sacramental because at least one spouse was unbaptized when the marriage was contracted.
A true marriage in the order of creation
Marriage is rooted in the order of creation and is not confined to Christians. A valid marriage in which at least one party is unbaptized is commonly called a natural marriage, and its bond a natural bond. It is a true marriage with the essential properties of unity and indissolubility, not a provisional arrangement or a merely civil contract.
A valid marriage between two baptized persons is necessarily a sacrament. By contrast, a marriage between a baptized person and an unbaptized person is not sacramental. When a Catholic is one of the parties, disparity of cult is an impediment to validity unless competent authority dispenses from it; a dispensed marriage is valid but remains a natural, not sacramental, bond while one spouse is unbaptized.
Validity and presumption
Natural marriage rests on true matrimonial consent between a man and a woman capable of marriage. It is ordinarily presumed valid until the contrary is proven. Civil divorce may regulate civil effects and permit physical separation, but it does not by itself establish freedom to marry in the Church.
A declaration of nullity is possible when evidence shows that a valid bond never arose because of an impediment, defective consent, or another ground recognized by law. Such a declaration concerns the marriage's beginning. It must be distinguished from the exceptional dissolution of a valid non-sacramental bond in favor of the faith.[1][2]
Privileges in favor of the faith
Under the Pauline privilege, a marriage originally contracted by two unbaptized persons can be dissolved in favor of the faith of a spouse who later receives Baptism when the unbaptized spouse departs in the canonical sense; the bond is dissolved when the baptized party validly contracts a new marriage after the required process. Other non-sacramental bonds can in defined cases be dissolved by the Roman Pontiff in favor of the faith.
These privileges dissolve a valid natural bond; they are not declarations that no marriage existed, and they are not a general Catholic form of divorce. A marriage that is ratified and consummated between baptized persons can be dissolved by no human power and for no cause except death. The competent ecclesiastical process must establish which category actually applies.[3]
References
- Back to citation Code of Canon Law, canons 1055–1165 — The Latin Church's law of marriage, including form and dissolution of the bond.
- Back to citation Norms on the Dissolution of the Bond in Favor of the Faith — Doctrinal and procedural norms for dissolution of a non-sacramental marriage.
- Back to citation Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1638–1642 — The marriage bond and the indissolubility of a ratified and consummated sacramental marriage.